April 16, 1983

Secretary of State George P. Shultz said today that the United States had a moral obligation not to allow concerns over human rights violations in El Salvador to lead to abandonment of that nation to ''a brutal military takeover by a totalitarian minority.'' In a wide-ranging defense of the Administration's policy in Central America, Mr. Shultz said it was crucial that Congress restore the military aid it had cut for El Salvador and thus create a ''shield'' behind which free elections and economic development can occur. 'Depends on the Congress' ''Whether we will be able to help provide this shield in time depends on the Congress,'' Mr. Shultz said in a speech in Dallas to that city's World Affairs Council and Chamber of Commerce. ''In the middle of a war, the Congress has cut security assistance by twothirds below the previous fiscal year. Here you are in the army and you're fighting, and all of a sudden the flow you need is cut by twothirds and people ask, how come the army isn't doing so well.''

Production at the nation's factories and mines rose 1.1 percent in March, the Federal Reserve Board reported today. Government economists said the figure was the most encouraging signal so far that the long-awaited economic recovery is well under way. Industrial production has now risen for four consecutive months, including a 1.5 percent increase in January and a rise of threetenths of 1 percent in February. The January figure was revised in the latest report, from a rise of nine-tenths of 1 percent reported earlier.

The area around Indian Point is not prepared for a possible accident at the nuclear reactors there, and the safety of the 288,000 people living within 10 miles of the plants cannot be assured, a Federal agency said in a report issued yesterday. ''At this time, I cannot assure that public health and safety can be protected in the 10-mile emergency planning zone around Indian Point,'' said Frank P. Petrone, regional director of the group that issued the report, the Federal Emergency Management Agency. The two Indian Point plants in operation are run by Consolidated Edison and the Power Authority of the State of New York. The plants are in Westchester County, in the town of Buchanan, on the east bank of the Hudson River, 35 miles north of midtown Manhattan.

Mayor Koch, who had planned last December to lay off as many as 6,600 workers before June 1984 to balance the city's next budget, said yesterday that virtually no layoffs would be necessary. He made his comments at a City Hall news conference called to announce that he had reversed his plan to allow the Police Department to be reduced by 1,800 officers through attrition. Instead, Mr. Koch said yesterday, he will replace the 1,800 who are expected to resign or retire and add 700 in the year that begins July 1. The department will have 24,095 officers by July, and 24,795 a year later, according to Police Commissioner Robert J. McGuire.

Union leaders agreed today to end a strike against the Metro-North Commuter Railroad in New York, and the management said it hoped to have commuter trains running Monday. After six weeks of a strike that has shut down the railroad for 90,000 riders, the management and the leaders of the union agreed to submit unresolved issues, chiefly relating to the size of train crews, to arbitration. The arbitrater's decision would be binding on both sides.